Oscars Choose French Architect for Museum

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has chosen French architect, Christian de Portzamparc, for their $200 million movie museum on eight acres in Hollywood. They intend to break ground in 2009 and finish by 2012.

At a board meeting on Tuesday night the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences chose the architect, Christian de Portzamparc, and his Paris-based firm to design the grand movie museum it is planning for a site just south of Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

The project — which academy officials said several years ago would cost roughly $200 million — has been described as the most ambitious monument to the worldwide influence of film. It will also extend the revival of a district that was once a stomping ground for Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore and D. W. Griffith, but long ago lost its grip on a business that still bears its name.